Fall/Winter-2006/2007

From CCE wiki archived
Jump to: navigation, search

Return to the University of Alberta West African Music Ensemble main page.

The instructors for this course are Robert Kpogo and Wisdom Agorde.

Master Drummer: David Descheneau

This year's teaching assistant is Stella York.

Important Information

  • If you did not come to the first class and audition, you may not register for or attend this class. Registration and participation are based on the audition and meeting for consent. Please de-register if you have registered, but were absent for the audition.
  • All students are required to pay a fee of $80 for instrument use and repair. This fee also includes a WAME T-Shirt, which is to be worn at all ensemble performances.
  • To access the classroom, you will need to encode your One-Card. Encoding took place on Thursday, September 21, 2006 in Fine Arts Building 2-11 from 10:00-12:00 and 1:00-3:00. Your next chance to encode your One-Card will be in January 2007.
  • Keys to the instrument cupboard are available from Robert.
  • To watch video from the class, you will need the latest version of Quicktime, available for download here. Video from each class will appear here in 10 minute segments. Each file is relatively large, so it will take several minutes to download. If you have problems watching these online, right click the link & click "Save Link As.." & download the video onto your computer.

Course Syllabus

Important information from the syllabus will appear here.


September 13, 2006

Today's class started with a song & clapping game. For the words to this song click Kani Wa

Quote of the day:
"In all the dances that we do, the dancers communicate with the drums...that's why it is important to learn the drum language." -- Wisdom

Gota

  • Wisdom and previous students demonstrated Gota to the class.
  • Wisdom taught the basic movement, the transition and the freeze position.

Video

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Video 6
Video 7
Video 8
Video 9
Video 10
Video 11
Video 12
Video 13
Video 14
Video 15
Video 16
Video 17

September 20, 2006

Warm-up

Today we started with a clapping game song, Seni Wa, which goes with the same clapping rhythm as the song we learned last week, Kani Wa (Boom Ba Boom Ba Ba).

We numbered off into groups. These groups will be our groups for the rest of the year. Each week one group will be responsible for setting up and putting away the drums. Stella will make a schedule for next week.

Gota

Today we split into pairs. We will keep the same partner for the rest of the year. We learned 3 signals from the lead drum: starting signal, transition signal and freeze/end signal. We practiced a bit, then each pair danced.

Bobobor

Today we learned the bell and rattle parts, and the basic steps of the dance.

Drums

(links to recordings will be posted here.)

1. Bell

2. Rattle

Dance

Description to be posted.

Video

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Video 6
Video 7
Video 8
Video 9
Video 10
Video 11
Video 12
Video 13
Video 14
Video 15

September 27, 2006

Video

Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 Video 4 Video 5 Video 6
Video 7 Video 8 Video 9 Video 10 Video 11 Video 12

October 4, 2006

Video

Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 Video 4 Video 5 Video 6 Video 7
Video 8 Video 9 Video 10 Video 11 Video 12 Video 13 Video 14 Video 15

October 11, 2006

Video

Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 Video 4 Video 5 Video 6 Video 7
Video 8 Video 9 Video 10 Video 11 Video 12 Video 13 Video 14


October 18, 2006

Video

1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11


October 25, 2006

Potluck & movie night.

November 1, 2006

Video

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13


November 8, 2006

Video

This video is being edited to realign audio & video.

1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12

November 15, 2006

Summary

Today we reviewed Gahu. We learned the basic movement for Atsiagbekor & the first variation (To to crang crang-Ahey Ahey), as well as the variation ending (To te ga de ge). We also had a Gahu dance test.

Video

1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13


November 22, 2006

Summary

Today we learned some new Atsiagbekor variations & we practiced for the World Music Sampler.
The mid-term examination/performance will be on December 6, 2006. Friends and family are welcome to watch. There was some discussion of having a potluck afterwards.

Video

1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12


November 29, 2006

Summary

Today we watched a video of the Sankofa Dance Theatre Group performing Atsiagbekor. Here are links to several Sankofa Dance Theatre Group performances. Atsiagbekor starts on video "Sankofa-07".

Sankofa-01 Sankofa-02 Sankofa-03 Sankofa-04 Sankofa-05 Sankofa-06 Sankofa-07 Sankofa-08 Sankofa-09
Sankofa-10 Sankofa-11 Sankofa-12 Sankofa-13 Sankofa-14 Sankofa-15 Sankofa-16 Sankofa-17 Sankofa-18


Video

Here's the video from today's class.

1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11


January 17, 2006

Video

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14